Aftermath of the Beginning
by The Final Conduit
Summary: When all was said and done, that place, once filled with hope and security, could now only hold a broken shadow of what it once had. Many can deny the reality of such a situation by applying a shield of false hope into their perspective, but like the Grimm, reality shall tear such a feeble thing apart without mercy, and may even scar you for hiding behind that mask so foolishly.


The second day began in a way that Blake had mixed feelings on.

Though many hotels were accommodating for the now homeless huntsmen and huntresses in training from Beacon, in light of the island being completely overrun with Grimm, complete with a giant Wyvern sitting at the destroyed tower top, as a menacing reminder that the foundation for hope within the city of Vale was crushed to dust in the matter of a day, she was stuck with the task of providing food and shelter for herself.

The reason for this could be related to the people wearing masks likened to those of the Grimm, some of said masks having crimson markings on them according to those of more importance to the White Fang than those with blank masks.

Gazing at them from the back of the book store turned old and abandoned crime scene, Blake sighed fitfully.

For a moment, she wondered if this would be her life from here on out, her sifting herself up into a sitting position, trying to force her groggy brain to remember the layout of Tukson's bookstore after she'd looked it up and down for any potential exits, her sitting on the wooden stairs that led to the attic of the store.

When her mind remembered that there was no other exit she could use, Blake adjusted her sore and stiff arm, watching the members of the White Fang from the back, her bouncing her Gambol Shroud without causing too much noise with the binding elastic looping around her arm, her wary of her vulnerability in that position without her weapon in hand.

They would go into the back at any second, Blake thought.

If they attacked her then, she could use her semblance to move should they attack her, but it was often much better for her to start a fight with her weapon in hand than without it there.

A light bounce of her wrist, and Blake wasn't sure if it would be better to look down at her weapon and risk the chance of someone noticing her in the span of time it took for her to get her weapon, when many of the people present were armed with guns.

Even if she was fast, her account of her physically tired body and mentally sluggish mind made her worry for her ability to use her semblance in time to react to the bullet's speed.

She decided to risk it.

With a hurried glance down at her weapon, Blake gripped her hand into a fist and yanked her weapon, it bouncing back up into her hand after she pushed her hand between the hole in the steps leading to the attic.

Taking it into her hand with a firm grip via reflex, Blake's head turned forward, just in time to see a man aiming a gun at her.

Improvising as quickly as possible, she aimed Gambol Shroud, still in its gun form, and promptly fired the first shot, the bullet cutting through the air towards the man's gun.

The resulting gun fight would make up the beginning of Blake Belladonna's morning, starting at the crack of dawn.

* * *

Inside the abandoned warehouse, it was incredibly silent, save for the incessant sound of heels clicking against the floor, the owner of said heels hugging herself tightly as she walked in a fixed pattern.

"There's no reason for you to be worried you know." Mercury finally said to her, though he didn't sound as reassuring as he probably intended to (or maybe that was on purpose, knowing him, the girl thought with bitterness).

"It's been two days since we've heard from her, what else should I be doing in this situation?" Emerald asked, her facing Mercury at that point in her many cycles through the empty warehouse, her still hugging herself.

"You know she can take care of herself. There's no need for you to worry. It's not going to make her come back any faster. Knowing her, she probably has something that she needs to take care of before she meets back up with us."

Emerald sighed, turning away from Mercury and breaking her walking cycle to walk around in a new way.

Though she knew Mercury was very likely right, the fact that the Wyvern was inexplicably just sitting on the now destroyed remains of the CCT after circling around it for so long worried her, as that was where Cinder had gone last.

What could Cinder be doing at a time like this?

She stopped walking abruptly when the sound of the warehouse entrance opening filled the warehouse, Emerald wheeling herself around, a warm type of excitement filling her, intermingling with relief as she looked back towards the source of the sound.

Mercury, who had been sitting on a chair with his legs stacked on top of each other on a table, sat up abruptly and planted his raised feet to the ground, a minor sign of his better concealed worry, the gray haired boy standing up from his chair and looking behind himself.

The figure that entered wasn't the one they'd been silently hoping for, but they were a welcome sight as compared to the few dissentors that had tried to attack them in the confusion of their de facto employer going silent before, Emerald running forward to more quickly close the distance between herself and Mercury, the young man already running to Neo's side as she pressed her hand against the wall to steady herself.

Upon getting close enough to inspect her more closely, Emerald noted that Neo looked worse for wear than she had expected from someone like her.

Though no bruises or wounds were visible from what Emerald could see, there were definite bags under Neo's eyes, and her steps looked rather reminiscent of a person who couldn't hold his liquor suffering the immediate aftereffects of going to a binge drinking party, Neo looking just about ready to collapse where she stood until Mercury reached her side, taking her right wrist and raising it over his head, turning to face the same direction Neo faced, his right hand keeping Neo's arm slung over his shoulder and his left hand holding her side for support, Emerald reaching her a split second later and doing the same, but with an inverse placement her hands.

It seemed as though Neo was barely able to muster the strength to walk after she realized that the two were holding her up, her dropping her still open umbrella on the ground, Emerald being careful not to step on it as they walked the tired woman into Mercury's old chair, the decision being made between the two de facto partners without any words even being spoken between them.

Once Neo reached the seat, with them easing her into it, she practically collapsed into it, her closing her eyes and sitting there under the faces of Mercury and Emerald, tinged with concern over the woman sitting under them.

She gave a soft moan, her eyes tensing faintly, opening her heterochromatic eyes forcefully, as though intent on saying something, only for her eyes to close again under exhaustion, her troubled expression becoming peaceful, the rise and falls of her chest being the greatest sign of her being asleep, sans her once tired face becoming a good deal more serene than before.

The growling of Neo's stomach made the duo share a look between one another, and reading the situation, Emerald nodded, glad to have something to do with herself now with her fidgeting nerves, happy to have a purpose for leaving the warehouse and doing something with herself.

* * *

For him, it was impossible to know whether the Wyvern sitting ominously on the top of the former CCT tower, where Pyrrha had been last seen, was the thing that unsettled him more, or the idea of people being unable to communicate effectively anymore, at least without risking their lives for that purpose.

Jaune sat in a bed, in a certain room, within a hotel in the middle of the city of Vale, it being the second day after everything had gone downhill.

He acknowledged his tiredness that was wrought on by his lack of sleep, but insomnia prevented him from doing anything more than close his eyes and restlessly lay there.

The teammates sharing the room with him were suffering from similar things, and under different circumstances, Jaune would almost find the silence within the room to be unbearably strange.

Yet, at that point in time, the silence seemed almost necessary.

Everyone was holding their breath, waiting for the moment that had yet to come where Pyrrha would arrive, proving to them that their inherent hope of her being okay wasn't fruitless in holding onto, and that all was right with the world.

Or at least the world of team JNPR, considering that the state of the non-Grimm infested world was bad, to put it as lightly as possible.

A knock roused the attention of the three members of the four member team, Ren, who sat closest to the door, getting up and walking to it, opening it up to find a young man there.

"Sun, are you alright?" Ren asked, his own voice not sounding quite as if he felt quite right himself.

"I'm just here to say goodbye is all." Sun said, him smiling tiredly on account of the early hour, a tinge of sadness in his voice nonetheless. "I didn't know if I'd catch you guys awake or not though, so this is a bit of a relief."

He rubbed his eye socket with the palm of his hand, yet he still managed to look over at Nora as she sat semi-idly in a chair behind Ren in the dark room, her and Jaune both looking towards Sun.

"Where are you going to head back to first? Mistral or Vacuo?" Nora asked, her voice detached from the usual energy it had.

"I decided it'd be best if I head straight back to Vacuo first. I gotta let my family know I'm safe first, right?"

Ren and his paler haired teammates all nodded in agreement, Nora turning away and looking towards Jaune as he stood up, walking to Ren and Sun with a forced smile on his face.

"I guess we can understand that. We're still waiting for word that Pyrrha's safe right now. It'll probably come soon." Jaune reached his hand to Sun, the faunus seeing the gesture and returning it by reflex, him shaking his hand. "I'm happy I was able to meet you, even if I only knew you for a little while."

"Same here." Sun looked around at the other two members of JNPR present, them understanding that he was talking to all of them when he said this.

Sun looked back at Jaune, and his friendly smile tinged with worry, "But don't you want to go back to tell your family that you're alright?"

"It's fine." Jaune's smile dropped, their hands letting go of each other. "I have to make sure the family I have here is fine first."

Besides Pyrrha, Blake was another source of worry for most of the group, as she'd unceremoniously ran away without saying anything to anyone.

Though Weiss reassured everyone that Blake would be alright, there was the uncertainty in everyone's belief in this, as the White Fang had become significantly more violent overnight, attacking several people in the streets, just when the threat of Grimm rampaging through the city had finally calmed itself down for the moment, though there were many who said that those people were only newcomers to the White Fang upon their arrest.

The situation was still rather grim however.

Sun seemed to understand what Jaune meant, for he gave a solemn nod, "Alright. I hope we get to see each other again someday."

"Us too." Nora said with a sad smile behind them.

Sun turning away for a moment, but stopping in his footsteps, looking back at Jaune, "If you ever run into Blake again, would you guys mind keeping her out of trouble?"

"Why her?" Ren asked, and Sun looked down.

"From what Ruby's told me, and from what I've seen, she's probably going to go headlong into some bad situation without thinking it through first. I just want you to let her know she isn't alone right now."

Ren shared a look with Jaune, who nodded, him turning to look at Sun's back, "We'll do our best to be there for her."

A sigh filled with relief.

"Alright. Thanks." Sun walked forward, not turning to look back at them. "Be safe you guys. Make sure to check in on Yang and the others. They need as much support as possible."

Though they said they would behind him, Nora sighed heavily within the dark room, her sitting on the bed with her arms hugging her raised knees.

The battle against the effects of sleep deprivation was then lost for her, and she fell on her side, curled into a ball, her tired green eyes closing.

As soon as Jaune closed the door, Ren had already noticed Nora, and seeing her tired state, he sighed, walking to her side, Jaune seeing him picking Nora up tenderly into a bridal style and carrying her closer to the headboard of the bed, the blonde walking ahead of him and pulling the blankets on the bed back, Ren placing Nora onto the bed, the girl opening her eyes and taking notice of her childhood friend and team leader when the latter pulled the blanket up around her shoulders.

"We should get some sleep guys. I don't think Pyrrha would like it if she came to find us all tired out. She'd probably end up apologizing too much again. We don't want that, right?"

Her tired tone was marred by the warm smile she had, and for the first time in two days, Ren and Jaune could smile back.

Pyrrha always had a weird habit of apologizing too much, and they'd been trying to help her to grow out of it, with varying levels of success.

The image of them being completely tired out when she arrived would likely make her habit spark again if she realized it had been in anticipation for her.

With a nod, Ren assented to Nora's words, "Yes, it would be a good idea for us to get some rest. It won't do us any good to keep worrying about everything if we're just hurting ourselves in the end."

Jaune nodded, "Yeah."

He sighed heavily, tiredly, and as he turned around, Ren was already walking to the other bed, getting under the blanket a few seconds before Jaune did the same, them falling into a silent sleep, barely able to respond to Nora when she'd said good night, Jaune not commenting on the fact that it was the morning at that point before falling to unconsciousness.

* * *

Glynda looked up from the bottom of the island, gazing up at the many Grimm monsters that flew in and out of view, her looking behind herself at the many Huntsmen behind her at that moment, she herself standing on a large boulder rock with flat top made from the center of it, the result of a sword cutting through it.

"Bart, stay here with the helmsman and protect him. We'll try to finish this as quickly as possible."

"Understood Glynda." Bartholomew Oobleck stood up from the makeshift seat he'd made out of the boat they'd traveled on to get there, his coffee mug turning into its weapon form as he shouldered it, Glynda turning around and looking up at the flying Grimm, who hadn't noticed them yet.

For a moment, she wondered how brave the helmsman must've been, to knowingly steer their boat to an area infested to the brim with Grimm, and not have the fear necessary to cause the Grimm themselves to take notice of them.

Pushing this thought aside however, Glynda asked a question without looking away from the Grimm above her, "Is everyone ready?"

Almost immediately came the semi-sarcastic reply of Qrow behind her as his feet clapped lowly behind her.

"About as ready we're going to be." He said, his approaching footsteps stopping behind her, the other Huntsmen and Huntresses making a small huddle around her with him, the other flat top of boulder there being used for the same purpose of people standing on it.

"Can everyone assent to that?" Glynda asked for clarification, and there came a supplemental sound of confirmation of this, and she raised her weapon without asking anything further, the two flat tops instantly shooting into the air, carrying the group of nigh-unstoppable Grimm-killers into their enemy's line of sight, and by extension, their domain, the many drawn weapons being the first sign that the Grimm's equivalent of Death personified had arrived to take what originally belonged to the humans there.

* * *

 **A/N: The less than solid prologue to this story.**

 **Simply put, it's about the aftermath of the Battle of Beacon through the perspectives of Blake, Emerald, JN-R, and Glynda respectively.**

 **Hopefully you'll enjoy reading this.**


End file.
